GRAMMY® Gourmet: Scott Ian of Anthrax

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Scott Ian is no stranger to the GRAMMY Awards. His band Anthrax have been nominated three times in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category since its introduction in 1990. This year they’ve garnered their fourth, nod for the song “I’m Alive,” from the band’s excellent 2011 album Worship Music.

The nomination comes at a time of renewed vitality for the veteran thrash metal act, following a reunion with ’80s era vocalist Joey Belladonna and a triumphant stint alongside fellow thrash pioneers Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth for a globetrotting series of stadium-shaking Big Four concerts. They also have a new EP of cover songs, titled Anthems, set for release, as well as a planned spring U.S. tour on which they will be performing their classic 1987 album, Among the Living, in full.

But first, there are the GRAMMYs on February 10 at L.A.’s Staples Center. Though Ian and Anthrax have been here before (and were twice bested by Metallica; once by Soundgarden), they have another shot this year.

In addition to his duties as rhythm guitarist and songwriter for Anthrax, Ian is also an avowed foodie. For several years he had an online music and food column and is known to pal around with famed restaurateur, vintner and Mario Batali business partner Joe Bastianich. Radio.com asked the guitarist, a New Yorker by birth but who has for years called L.A. home, to recommend five must-visit restaurants for anyone making their way to the City of Angels for the awards ceremony.

Ian’s answers traversed several cuisines and price points: Beverly Hills sushi temple Matsuhisa; Michael Cimarusti’s Michelin-starred seafood eatery Providence; the inventive farm-to-table spot Cook’s County; and L.A. mainstay the Apple Pan, which is known for its hamburgers and, not coincidentally, a killer apple pie. Explains the guitarist of his varied choices, “They’re all the best at what they do. Trust me.”

Ian also included one Bastianich/Batali operation, the lauded Osteria Mozza, in his picks, and added another, Pizzeria Mozza, as his restaurant of choice if Anthrax were to win the Grammy for “I’m Alive.” “I’d be in the Jack Warner room at Mozza,” he says, adding that his ideal celebratory meal there would include “Charcuterie, fennel sausage pizza, butterscotch budino and then a lot of Amaro to finish it off.”

As for what he would be drinking to mark the occasion?

“Vintage Champagne or a shot of whiskey,” he says. “Or even better: both.”